AF447 flight of death official timeline

A massive mid-Atlantic air search remains underway for Air France flight AF447 that lost contact with Brazilian air traffic controllers while traveling at 35,000 feet (10,600 meters).

Air France flight AF447 left Rio de Janeiro’s Airport do Galeao at 2230 GMT Sunday and was last heard of at 0133 GMT Monday.

Flight AF447 was on a direct 11-hour flight to Charles de Gaulle 2 airport where it was due to touch-down at 0910 GMT (11.10am local Paris time).

The last known contact with the plane – carrying 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby – plus the 12-person crew, was some 365km (226 miles) from the Brazilian coast, in the vicinity of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago.

Brazilian and French passengers top the list for the most number of passengers onboard AF447, followed by German, Italian, American, Chinese, Hungarian, and people from 17 other countries.

Brazil has launched two air force squadrons to hunt for the presumably downed aircraft, while French military aircraft had been dispatched to search around Cape Vert or Green Cape off the coast of Senagal.

France has also dispatched warships to the area and all commercial vessels have been alerted to maintain a visual watch.

Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the CEO of Air France, said the aircraft had transmitted an automatically generated alert that it had significant electrical problems shutting down onboard flight computers after flying through extreme turbulence.